Federal Reports

Although Washington State performed the required onsite monitoring at all 20 of the group care facilities that we reviewed, this monitoring did not ensure that these facilities complied with State licensing requirements related to the health and safety of children in foster care, as required by Federal law. We determined that all 20 group care facilities did not comply with 1 or more State health and safety requirements. Specifically, these facilities did not comply with requirements related to medical safety (20 facilities); environmental, space, and equipment safety (18 facilities); background checks (16 facilities); food safety (11 facilities); and fire safety and emergency practices (7 facilities).

The purpose of the audit was to (1) assess the adequacy of the Institute of Education Sciences’ (IES) Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) grant requirements and monitoring of States to ensure internal controls are in place to prevent, detect, and report unauthorized access and disclosure of personally identifiable information in SLDSs; and (2) determine whether selected States have internal controls in place to prevent, detect, report, and respond to unauthorized access and disclosure of personally identifiable information in their SLDSs. We found that IES’s grant requirements were adequate to ensure the protection of personally identifiable information. We also found that the grantees that we audited addressed these requirements in the approved grant applications by identifying and noting that they would comply with specific State requirements pertaining to data and system security. However, we found that IES had inadequate controls for monitoring its grantees’ adherence to State system security requirements. Specifically, IES did not ensure that its grantees met the minimum State system security requirements. We identified internal control weakness at all three grantees audited that increased the risk that these grantees would be unable to prevent or detect unauthorized access and disclosure of personally identifiable information in their SLDSs.

The OIG investigated approximately $1,600 in fraudulent charges that were made on several Government charge cards issued to a U.S. Geological Survey employee.We found no evidence that the employee made the fraudulent charges and we discovered that a friend of the employee may have been responsible. As a result, we closed our investigation and referred this matter to the local police department.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudicates applications for immigration benefits, including applications for permanent resident cards, also known as green cards. In response to congressional concerns, we examined green card application processing times, as well as why processing times vary among USCIS field offices. USCIS regularly posts information on its website about the time it takes field offices to adjudicate green card applications (processing time). Yet, the information is unclear and not helpful to USCIS’ customers because it does not reflect the actual amount of time it takes field offices, on average, to complete green card applications

Please click the link below to access a press release describing this and other related documents.

Please click the link below to access a press release describing this and other related documents.